Islamabad: Gunmen killed a Shiite Muslim scholar and wounded two other people in the latest sectarian attack to hit Pakistan, police said on Monday.

Allama Nasir Abbas from Islam`s minority branch was killed late Sunday in Lahore, the capital of Punjab province, after addressing a religious gathering, police said, adding that the attackers managed to flee.

"Two attackers on motorcycle opened fire on his vehicle. Primarily it was an incident of targeted killing," senior police official Rana Abdul Jabbar told reporters.

Local media said the cleric`s driver and a security guard were wounded in the attack.

Groups of Shiites protested over the killing at the hospital late Sunday and in front of the Punjab governor`s house early Monday, police said.

There has been a rise in in sectarian violence in Pakistan after several deadly clashes between Sunni and Shiite Muslim groups near the capital Islamabad in November.

On November 19 gunmen killed a senior Shiite university director along with his driver in Lahore, while another Shiite leader and his guard were killed in Karachi in early December.

Three days later, Shamsur Rehman Muawiya, chief of the Sunni extremist organisation Ahl-e-Sunnat Wal Jammat for Punjab province, was killed in Lahore.

Pakistan is rife with sectarian clashes, with Sunni militant groups linked to al Qaeda and the Taliban often attacking gatherings by Shiites, who constitute some 20 percent of the country`s population.